


A Lock and Key

by CaptainGreyjoy



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bottom Dean, Bottom Gabriel, Fluff, M/M, Soulmates, Top Castiel, Top Sam, that delicious kind of relationship where both thinks the other doesn't want them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2015-02-13
Packaged: 2018-02-22 17:16:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2515538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainGreyjoy/pseuds/CaptainGreyjoy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The trials are completed. Sam's not dead, the angels are all still angels, and Cas has been paying visits to Gabriel in hopes that he'll do something about Sam's declining health.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Here are the differences from canon:  
> • Metatron never happened, so as a result, angels are still angels.  
> • Sam completed the trials but it didn’t kill him, so Crowley has his humanity.  
> • In Taxi Driver Bobby came back to life instead of going to Heaven, and he’s staying with the Winchesters and Cas in the bunker.  
> This starts the day after the third trial is completed.

**Gabe, for the second time, is recruited to Team Free Will.**   
**Chapter 1**

  
_Gabe smiled contentedly, relaxing into the younger Winchester’s muscular embrace. “How’d I get so lucky, kiddo?” He murmured, closing his eyes. A chuckle resounded in the hunter’s chest._

_“You? I’m the one whose boyfriend has archangel stamina. I’m pretty sure about 75% of the things we just did are an abuse of your powers,” Sam laughed wearily, having been worn out by the archangel in his arms. He kissed the shorter man’s head and rested his own against the headboard._

_“Free Will, Sammy, means I get to use my powers however I like.” Sam rolled his eyes fondly, and ran a hand through Gabe’s hair. “I can practically hear that eye roll, Samsquatch,” Gabe muttered, twisting around in Sam’s arms. “You’re lucky I find your sass, among other things, so endearing.” He leaned up and kissed Sam softly._

Gabe awoke with a groan and rolled into a sitting position. Of all the habits he’d developed from his time on earth, sleeping had to be the worst. He’d been back for nearly eight months now, and his subconscious, like the dick it was, had refused to let him just sleep. “It’s not going to happen,” he snapped irritably, hoping his mind got the hint. He got out of his bed and snapped on a pair of jeans as he headed into the kitchen. He stopped in the doorway and pinched his bridge of his nose. “No,” he said.

Castiel frowned. “It’s been eight months, Gabriel.”

“And your little make-shift team seems to be doing just fine,” Gabe remarked, walking around his younger brother to open the refrigerator. “You don’t need me.”

“Sam completed the trials.”

Gabe refrained from asking how the younger Winchester was doing. That couldn’t have been easy on him. Poor kid was probably drained. “Goody for him. Make sure to give him a gold star sticker.” He pulled out a tub of ice cream and hopped up on the counter, digging into it with a spoon.

“Gabriel, not all demons were banished from earth. Crowley remains, with his humanity intact. We are unsure as to what we should do with him.”

Gabe put his spoon down, intrigued. “Thought you said those trials were foolproof, Cassie.”

“I had thought them to be.”

“So you’ve got the king of hell, and he’s got his humanity?” Gabe whistled. “Good luck.”

“Gabriel, please.” Castiel spoke softly. “Dean is barely speaking to me, Sam is weak, and despite his return to the living, Bobby is still confined to his wheel chair. I am not strong enough to heal him. We could use another mind.”

“Well it must be buckets of fun over at Fort Humanity,” Gabe commented.

Cas’ eyebrows knit together. “None of us are doing well, Gabriel. Least of all Sam.”

It wasn’t the first time since he’d been resurrected that Cas had visited Gabe requesting he come back with him to the Winchesters, but up until now the archangel had remained adamant that his return remain a secret from the hunters. But he knew his little brother, and Cas wouldn’t use his concern for Sam’s well-being against him like this unless it was serious. “Alright,” he conceded. “Now about you and Dean-o,” he began.

Cas cut him off. “I’d rather not talk about it at present, Gabriel.”

“Fine. But we’ll have this conversation later,” Gabe insisted. “I don’t like the idea of that moron hurting you like this.”

Castiel opened his mouth as though to defend Dean, but under Gabriel’s firm gaze he closed it again.

~

  
_Sam’s head fell forward as he thrust into Gabriel, the archangel tight and hot around him. Wings flared out on either side and his hands were buried in them. Gabriel leaned up to kiss him and Sam hungrily controlled the kiss, tasting the sugar and power humming through his archangel. Gabriel broke off to moan loudly and rock back against Sam’s thrusts._

_“Sam,” he pleaded, bucking up off the bed. Sam thrust harder, pounding into the man beneath him. The sounds coming from the archangel made him even harder and he was so close to orgasm he could practically taste it._

Sam woke with a start, rolling over onto his back. In a way, seeing the archangel again was almost as painful as the nightmares and inconsistent sleep, but it was comforting to imagine that Gabriel had lived and that he would lower himself to sleep with a guy who still had several years’ worth of demon blood pumping away in his system. He got up and made his way down the hall where he could hear Dean moving about in the kitchen.

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he walked into the kitchen. Dean stood at the stove, flipping a pancake while bacon sizzled in another pan.

“Mornin’, Sammy. How you doing?”

Sam ran a hand through his hair. “Better than yesterday, I guess,” he shrugged. “Where’s Bobby?”

“Library, reading up on the king sized problem we got.” He slid the pancake onto a plate and handed it to Sam.

Sam took it and stared at it for a few moments, before cautiously asking, “Where’s Cas?”

Dean stiffened and turned back to keep the bacon from burning. “Don’t know, don’t care.”

“I thought you two were on speaking terms.” Sam sat down and cut into his pancake.

“Dude’s been vanishing to god knows where in the middle of a crisis. Won’t even tell us where he’s going,” Dean muttered. “You’ll have to excuse me if I’m not exactly in a position to forgive him for everything he’s done if he can’t even be honest with us.”

Sam dropped the topic and took a bite of his pancake.

“Do I smell bacon?” When no one answered him, Crowley stepped into the kitchen and eyed first the bacon in the pan, then the pancake on Sam’s plate. “Who knew. Squirrel can cook.”

“Call me squirrel again and you’re not getting any breakfast,” Dean snapped. “Stupid name doesn’t even make sense,” he muttered.

Sam chuckled into his pancake.

“Like you’ve got it any better, ‘moose’,” Dean growled. He turned back to Crowley. “Shouldn’t you be helping Bobby figure out how this happened?”

Crowley raised an eyebrow. “I’m not one to look a gift horse in its mouth.” He sat down at the table. “I’ll take bacon, please.”

Dean’s eyebrows skyrocketed. “What makes you think you get to make any demands?”

Crowley looked affronted. “I should think you owe me at least breakfast after making me an unwilling participant in your little science experiment.”

Dean ignored him, but looked up again when Bobby wheeled into the kitchen. “Bacon?” He offered. Bobby took it gratefully, wheeling over to the table next to Sam.

“Find anything?” Dean asked, sitting down with his own plate.

“Been up since seven this morning and I can’t find a damn thing. The only record of those trials at all were the tablets.” Bobby growled in frustration.

“Fantastic,” Dean mumbled around a piece of bacon.

“Had to see it to believe it. How’s humanity treating you? I hear having a soul’s a bitch.”

Four heads whipped around to stare at the doorway to the kitchen where Cas stood, accompanied by Gabriel. The archangel leaned casually against the wall, speaking to Crowley though his eyes were glued to Sam. Sam was here. Sam was alive. Relief washed through him.

There was a shocked silence for a moment before Crowley spoke. “Who is this, exactly?”

“Cas, what the hell is going on here?” Dean demanded. “He’s supposed to be dead.”

“Nice to see you, too, Dean,” Gabe sneered.

“It would be lovely if someone could please answer the bloody question,” Crowley snapped.

“Gabriel?” Sam spoke, cautiously. “I thought Lucifer…”

“He did, the bastard. Still can’t believe he actually did it, but he did. Yet here I am in all my glory,” Gabe shrugged, his tone casual, but his eyes intent on the younger Winchester. The kid looked like crap. If he was getting any sleep at all, it couldn’t be good sleep.

“Gabriel. The archangel. You’ve got to be kidding,” Crowley scoffed.

Gabriel’s head snapped to face the demon. “I wouldn’t test me, if I were you. I’ve been under wraps for close to eternity and believe me I’m just itching to smite something.”

“How…” Sam frowned. “When…”

Gabriel briefly met his eyes then dropped them to the floor guiltily. “Dear old Dad, I’m guessing. About…eight months ago.”

Dean switched his glare from the archangel to Cas. “That’s where you’ve been disappearing to?”

“It required some…effort to convince my brother to accompany back here,” Castiel explained.

“Glad to see we finally got your attention,” Dean snapped, bitterly. “It’s not like we’ve been completing trials for the past few months that nearly killed Sam, or dealing with Heaven screwing with Cas’ brain.”

Pushing the images of Sam dealing with the agonizing side effects of the trials from his mind, Gabe sat down at the table and shrugged like it was no big deal. “Better late than never,” he offered. “But Cassie showed up my kitchen and said you needed help sorting out where the trials went wrong, so I decided to grace you with my presence and heavenly wisdom.”

“An addition to the team couldn’t hurt,” Sam reasoned, after a moment. Dean threw him a skeptical look. Sam’s eyes met Dean’s beseechingly. _Don’t make a scene Dean, he’s here to help_. Dean got the message loud and clear and sighed.

“Fine. Okay. Welcome aboard.” He pushed his chair out and dumped his dishes in the sink. “I’m going to take a shower.” He strode out of the room, refusing to meet Cas’ eyes as he walked past him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabe and Cas have that talk. Some unexpected visitors arrive.

 

Sam was in the library with Bobby, Crowley had wandered off to his room (presumably) to lie on his bed contemplating whatever it was demons contemplated, and Dean was in the shower. Gabe determined that this meant it was prime time for grilling Cas. His brother was sitting outside, on the top of the bunker, staring up at the sky.

“Looks a lot different from down here, doesn’t it?” Gabe remarked, sitting down beside the angel.

Cas didn’t look at him, but let out a sigh. “Yes,” he agreed. “It does. I cannot decide which view I prefer. I miss Heaven but earth does have its…charms.”

“Dean,” Gabe supplied bluntly.

Cas tilted his head to look at him. “We’re going to have that talk?” He guessed.

“Bingo.” Gabe’s feet swung over the edge casually like a child on a swing, but his eyes were serious. “What the hell is wrong with you Castiel?”

Cas frowned. “Pardon?"

“He’s your mate,” Gabe snapped irritably. “I know it, you know it, hell, Crowley probably knows it. So what’s with the laissez-faire?”

Cas’ gaze dropped to his lap where his hands lay. “Dean does not desire me. I do not wish to burden him with any unwanted affections. I have betrayed his trust so often it is a miracle he will even speak to me.”

“‘Doesn’t desire you’?!” Gabe exclaimed in frustration, resisting the urge to throw his hands in the air dramatically. “Please! I just have to set foot in the same room as the two of you and the only thing more blatant than his massive masculine panic is the way he looks at you. I hope you know that the only thing stopping me from interfering personally is my questionable respect for your feelings, because I have never wanted to physically shove to people together so much!”

“Dean scarcely trusts me anymore, Gabriel. That last thing I wish to do is confront him about his status as my mate. I’ve known him for close to five years and never told him. He’d most likely see it as another betrayal.”

“Christ, Castiel. It’s like their insecurities are contagious,” Gabe snapped. “Just…promise me you’ll make a start, okay? Even if it’s baby steps?”

Cas glanced curiously at Gabriel. “You ran away from our family, Gabriel, including me. Why are you so invested in my relationship with Dean?”

Gabe flinched like he’d been slapped. “I ran away because I _love_ our family,” he growled. “Seeing as I’ll be living with your make-shift family until this problem blows over, I’d rather not have this one broken as well.” He stood, dusting off his jeans.

Cas stopped him before he could snap inside. “I hardly think we can have this conversation with discussing Sam,” he observed.

Gabe froze. “Believe me, Castiel, this is not a subject you want to touch,” he said, hoarsely, tension stilling his muscles.

“It is,” Cas assured him, meeting his gaze unwaveringly. “Sam is my friend, and you my brother. This concerns me far more than my relationship with Dean concerns you.”

Gabe stiffly sat back down. “What is there to say?” He asked, casting his eyes back upwards.

“We might start with the fact that Sam Winchester is your mate,” Castiel suggested softly. “And why it is fair of you to criticize my lack of action with Dean when you have made no such advances towards Sam.”

“I am in an entirely different position that you, Cas,” Gabriel objected.

“We have both made mistakes, Gabriel. If you believe Dean can overlook mine, I do not see why you should be any different,” Cas insisted.

“Because Dean was _all Sam had_ ,” Gabriel spat, “And I killed him. Repeatedly.” He looked as mildly disgusted with himself. “I hurt Sam in ways I can never make up for, and screwed around with them enough that if Sam feels _anything whatsoever_   for me it’s probably a nice combination of disgust and hatred. You were there in the warehouse, Cas. You saw the look on his face. I’m just another dick angel to him who tried to make him say yes. It doesn’t matter if he’s my mate. I’m a shitty excuse for the archangel I used to be and the last person on this earth he should be with is me.” By the end of his speech Gabriel’s grace was aching and his throat was raw with frustration.

“You died for their cause, Gabriel,” Cas whispered after a moment. “That counts for quite a bit. I am sure Sam sees this.”

Gabe snorted. “Then he’s a fool if he thinks that makes up for my actions.”

“You are injuring your grace by keeping your distance,” Cas protested.

“So are you,” Gabe pointed out. “And it takes more out of you to refuse yourself Dean given that only one of us here is an _arch_ angel.”

“He is your _mate_ , Gabriel,” Cas stressed. “He has as small a chance at being happy with another as you do. It’s not just _your_ chance at happiness you’re throwing away.” He vanished in a flutter of wings, and Gabriel stayed up on the roof until the sun began to set. 

~

Crowley impatiently watched Bobby pour over the books from across the table. “As _gripping_ as this saga of Which Book Doesn’t Hold The Answers This Time is, I sincerely hope this is not what I have to look forward to in the upcoming weeks.”

Bobby didn’t raise his head, merely turning the page and adjusting the baseball cap on his head.

Truth was, Crowley hoped this was exactly how things were going to go. He had a whole lot of misdeeds to prey upon his conscience and now that he actually _had_ a conscience he wasn’t looking forward to facing them. Nothing had happened so far, but that didn’t stop the terror Crowley felt at the prospect of guilt. Of humanity. Because he’d been human once, and it’d done him no favours.

“Robert,” he whined, tipping his head back in the chair and propping his legs up on the table.

Bobby cast a disparaging look at the shoes on the table. “Hell burn away your manners?” He muttered. “Get your shoes off the table.”

“No,” Crowley replied smoothly, gleeful at the attention. It’d been five hours of complete silence save for the rustling of paper and it was driving him mad.

Bobby lifted his head to glare at him. “You got about 10 seconds before I grab the holy water,” he threatened, gruffly.

“Touchy,” Crowley drawled, removing his shoes from the table. Another minute or two passed in silence. “I don’t suppose Dean and his angel have made any progress since I last watched their agonizing and frankly absurdly angst-ridden love manifest in the form of heated stares.”

Bobby raised his eyebrows and looked at Crowley. “What’re you on about?”

“You didn’t know?” Crowley asked, only half feigning surprise. “It’s the damnedest thing. Dean’s his mate and angel-boy hasn’t laid a finger on him.”

Bobby’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Mate?”

“Little thing us demons and angels have,” Crowley explained, leaning forward, all too happy to have something to talk about. “For angels, you’ve got to imagine that their grace is a lock, right? And each soul or grace is the key. But there’s only one key for each lock, and that soul is the grace’s soul mate. Us demons have got a space left like what our soul ought to look like, and the soul or grace of _our_ mates are shaped like that. So it sort of…fills the space, I suppose you could say.”

Bobby’s confusion was evident. “For each angel and each demon there is an angel, demon, or human, who is perfect for them,” Crowley tried.

“You tryin’ to tell me soulmates are real?” Bobby scoffed.

“Not human to human, no,” Crowley shrugged. “But angel to human, demon to human, and the occasional demon to demon, angel to demon, or even angel to angel.”

“They got a word for that ya know. ‘Incest’,” Bobby snorted.

Crowley rolled his eyes. “You humans have such black and white terms for _everything_. I’d advise you not to pretend to understand or simplify the sorts of bonds angels create. They’re complicated…” he mused. “Intimate.”

Bobby held his gaze for a moment before falling back in his wheelchair and crossing his arms. “And what, you sayin’ Dean and Cas are like that?”

“Precisely,” Crowley said, sounding pleased Bobby had followed.

Bobby reviewed all the encounters between the hunter and the angel he’d witnessed, and had to admit the demon might have a point.

“I’d wager a fair bit that moose is Gabriel’s, as well, if the way the six-winged bastard couldn’t keep his eyes off him this morning was anything to go by.”

Bobby wasn’t quite ready to by that yet and chuckled as he returned to his book. In the silence that followed, the sound of a gun safety clicking off and Dean’s gruff “What the hell!?” echoed through the bunker, and Bobby rolled away from the table swiftly, heading for the sound of the disturbance.

“One more goddamn disturbance and I swear everyone’ll be out on their asses til we got this mess solved,” he muttered, as Crowley trailed behind him curiously.

Dean had his gun pointed at the couch when Crowley and Bobby entered, and when Bobby wheeled past Dean around to the front of the couch, he froze. There, on the couch, unconscious, were two forms Bobby recognized all too well, and hadn’t expected to see again.

But it wasn’t till Cas entered that with Sam behind him from the kitchen that anyone actually voiced it.

“Michael? Lucifer?” Cas asked cautiously.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael and Lucifer awaken and are explained the situation. More talks. Dean begins to suspect Cas may not be well.

The two archangels on the couch didn’t move or awaken when Cas spoke, and the angel reached out to take the gun from Dean. Dean jerked at the touch, but Cas looked at him firmly. “There is no need for this, Dean. Guns will not harm an archangel.”

Dean reluctantly put away the gun on a nearby shelf, but kept his gaze focused warily on the couch. “What the hell is going on?” He asked. 

“Gabriel!” Cas called out, his voice shaky, and a moment later the archangel appeared by his side. 

“What’s up, bro—” He stopped midsentence when he saw the couch. 

“Are they…” Cas trailed off, meeting Gabriel’s eyes.

“Dead?” Gabe finished. He cast another look at the two men. “Nah. Just passed out. I imagine the cage takes a bit out of you, even if you’re an archangel.”

Sam flinched beside him, and Gabriel instantly regretted his words. 

He stepped closer to his brothers and the youngest Winchester to examine them. Lucifer wore Nick, but in better shape than he’d left him, and Michael appeared in the form of a younger John Winchester.

“I don’t know anything else with that kind of mojo,” he agreed. “Looks like dad’s back in the game.”

“To some extent,” Cas said, frowning. 

“I’ll go set up some more rooms,” Bobby grumbled.

“They’re not staying here!” Dean objected. “No way I’m living under the same roof as those assholes.”

Gabe nodded his agreement, eyes narrowed warily at his two brothers. Michael he didn’t trust as much as he would’ve before the War in Heaven, and Lucifer…well Lucifer had already betrayed him once,   
and that still stung. As had the blade Lucifer had shoved through his chest. 

“So this is God’s work?” Sam pressed, trying to get everyone back to the first and foremost question on their minds.

Crowley rolled his eyes. “If not, a safe guess might be that your little trials had some little errors and now the cage has been sprung open, in addition to my continued presence here.” 

“I’m too old for this,” Bobby grumbled. 

~

It had been close to an hour and everyone was perched in the kitchen waiting for the archangels to wake up. Gabe was in the middle of discussing Shakespeare-- how yes, he had been very much interested in men-- with Crowley when he stiffened and looked up. “They’re awake,” he muttered. 

Gabe could practically feel the fear in Sam and he had to resist the burning urge to comfort him, to cross the room to him and wrap his wings protectively around him. He’s not yours, a voice in his head   
chided. His grace gave an angry twinge.

“We might want to get in there before they destroy something,” Cas said, after a moment.   
Michael and Lucifer were standing apart from each keeping their eyes locked distrustfully from opposite sides of the couch. Their heads whipped around when the gang entered, and Lucifer was frozen in shock when he laid eyes upon the two brothers he thought he’d killed. 

“Gabriel?” He asked, his voice soft and pained. 

“Luci,” Gabe returned, his tone careless but his posture stiff. “Father,” he explained. 

“And Michael and I?” The devil queried.

“The Winchesters were attempting to close the gates of Hell following our father’s written instructions, but there seem to have been some side effects we did not anticipate.” Castiel spoke, hesitantly.   
“Though it might also be father.”

Michael looked down at himself in confusion. “This is not my vessel.”

“Adam did not arrive with you,” Cas explained. 

Lucifer moved his gaze from Gabriel to Sam, who, Gabe thought admiringly, stood his ground fairly well, even if he could hear the kid’s heart pounding from where he stood. He moved his eyes back to Gabe, and they widened almost imperceptibly. He didn’t know how he hadn’t noticed it at the Elysian Fields. Gabriel shot him a warning look, and he refrained from commenting on it. My vessel is my brother’s mate? Father really does work in mysterious ways, he thought to himself. Our vessels are our brothers’ mates, he corrected, after a look at Castiel. And that’s when his eyes landed on Crowley. 

“Fancy seeing you here, Crowley,” he said. 

Crowley was slightly white-faced but trying to maintain his composure all the same.   
And _oh_. Lucifer’s eyebrows rose as he glanced back and forth from the hunter in the wheelchair—what was his name again? – to the king of Hell. So not only did he have his humanity but he had a mate. That must be interesting. 

Michael, meanwhile, was frowning. He closed his eyes in concentration, and when they opened again, there was a hint of panic on his face. He experimentally flicked his wrist and a book came flying off a shelf. 

“Hey!” Dean protested. 

“Lucifer, can you fly?” Michael asked.

Lucifer gave him a look. “What sort of question is that?”

“Just try it,” Michael snapped impatiently. 

Lucifer frowned. “I can’t.” He started for the stairs to the door while the humans looked on in bewilderment. At the door he was hit with some sort of force and tumbled back to the stairs. The shadow of his wings flared against the wall as he glowered at the group below. “What did you do.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Lucifer. They don’t have the sort of power it would require to keep us here,” Michael sneered. 

“What sort of game is father playing?” Lucifer demanded, looking to Michael for answers.

“If I recall correctly, questioning Him did not end well for you last time, brother. Take care not to overstep your bounds,” Michael growled. 

“What does our father want from us?” Lucifer repeated, tucking his wings away and stalking back downstairs to the living room. 

“He speaks no more to me than He does to you.” Michael answered in frustration. 

“Great. Another thing to research,” Dean muttered, tiredly. Between worrying about Sam and worrying about whether or not Crowley might get up to anything, because Cas’ occasional absence had definitely not kept him up with worry, he hadn’t been sleeping well. None of them had. He looked over at the angel and noted his own exhausted form. If angels needed sleep, he’d assume Cas wasn’t sleeping well either. His stomach rumbled audibly, and he looked from the two archangels to the kitchen. “I say we eat, sleep, then we hit the books in the morning.”

~

If anyone had told Gabriel 100 years ago that at this time he’d be sitting at a table in Kansas with the devil, Michael, little Castiel all grown up now, the king of Hell (plus a soul), and three hunters, he would have laughed them out of the room and then gone back to cheerfully fucking with the lives of the misogynistic pricks in the British parliament. Yet, here he was, and the British government had come a long way. 

“So Shakespeare and Marlowe?” The demon king was asking him.

Gabriel shrugged. “It was a wild night and the costumes for Twelfth Night had just been finished. Someone had to try them on.” 

Dean made a face, but said nothing.

Sam moved the food on his plate around, uncomfortable. 

Gabe observed that Michael and Lucifer wore matching looks of disdain, but he shrugged it off. He wasn’t about to start unnecessary fights between two of his father’s most powerful creatures. “Well, I’m full.” He stood, snapped his plate off the table, and headed out towards the living room. “C’mon, your majesty, I’ll tell you about this other demon I met named Crowley once. Wild guy. Had a thing for a bro of mine.”

Crowley followed, and Dean caught snippets of “Aziraphale” and “stylish Bentley”. Shaking his head in wonder that the two were hanging out, he took the rest of the empty plates from the table and headed into the kitchen to wash them. Sam got up eventually and when Dean looked back around as he started putting the first few dishes away, he caught sight of Cas, alone at the table. When the angel moved to get up he winced visibly, and Dean started forward, but Cas seemed to shake it off. 

“Good night, Cas,” he called, tentatively. Cas looked up, surprised, and Dean thought he saw the angel smile a little. 

“Good night, Dean. Please don’t hesitate to wake me if Sam needs to be rid of any nightmares.” Sleeping was a habit of Gabe’s that had rubbed off on him, but he enjoyed it, and while he figured Gabriel would be in Sam’s room in an instant if the hunter needed any help sleeping, he couldn’t see the harm in letting Dean know he wanted to help. 

The hunter nodded, and watched the angel walk to his room. Gabriel wandered back in a few minutes later on his way outside, and Dean stopped him, gritting his teeth at the idea of having to ask Gabriel for help. "Cas," he said. "Is he okay?"

The archangel merely gave him a derisive look and pushed past him. Silent and ponderous, Dean remained there for a while before heading of to sleep himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was short. As I stated in the comments, it's been a long time since I've updated. I'm not as much in the Supernatural fandom as I used to be in that I'm not caught up. The show is not as of much interest to me as it used to be, but I still actively read fanfiction about pairings I enjoy, so it might take a while but this will be finished.


End file.
